The Second World War brought a fundamental transformation in the balance of power in international politics. The war weakened the traditional European great powers and led to the emergence of two dominant superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. This change marked the decline of the old European-centred international system and the beginning of a bipolar world order. Britain and France, which had played major roles in European and global politics before and during the war, emerged economically and militarily weakened. Britain had accumulated enormous debts, suffered heavy losses, and faced the growing problem of maintaining its worldwide empire. France was also economically exhausted and politically weakened by German occupation and wartime destruction. Germany, Italy and Japan were defeated, occupied, and temporarily removed from the ranks of major powers. Germany was divided into occupation zones and later into two separate states, while Japan was placed